Make Way For Computer Classes

Our Towns: Plymouth

April 14, 1997

Eliminating home economics from Fisher Junior High School in Plymouth to make room for a new computer classroom was a tough but appropriate decision. Enrollment has filled the building to overflowing and, in order to follow a clear mandate from town voters to get technology to students, Superintendent Thomas McDowell had to find space.

Last December, voters overwhelmingly approved $2 million to bring the computers to town offices, the library and, in particular, the schools. The superintendent has a budget of $320,000 for each of the next five years. Mr. McDowell plans to move what was the high school computer curriculum back to the junior high school next year and in the subsequent year move the same curriculum into the elementary level.

Each year, the students in upper grades will get a more sophisticated computer curriculum, which is designed to quickly bring the school system to a higher level of technology training. Getting students in all grades familiar with computers will put them on a competitive footing with students in other systems.

If all goes according to plan, home economics will return to Fisher in the fall of 1998. Students in the junior high will miss a year of home economics, but they could take it as an elective in high school. Students can be introduced to cooking and sewing skills at any age, but the growing use of computers at all levels and for many subjects makes it more critical to start it in early grades.

Computers and technology have been pushing their way deeper into school curriculums as educators hurry to offer students the tools they will need to compete. Plymouth voters indicated their desire to join the computer age, and the town's students will be the beneficiaries.